It is earlier known to use different kinds of extractors in the course of dental treatment, primarily to remove saliva from the patient's mouth together with water supplied to the patient's mouth during treatment, for instance to cool the drill used to drill a patient's tooth. These extractors may have the form of a helical extractor which is attached to the patient's jaw, or the form of a plastic tube which is held in place by a dental nurse during particularly intensive stages of dental treatment. These extractors may also have the additional function of clamping the patient's tongue or of holding the tongue to one side, so as to avoid injury to the tongue.
Society has become more and more aware of the problems that can be caused by amalgam dental fillings. Dental amalgam is broken down by wear and by corrosion and can cause chronic mercury poisoning, resulting in migraine, dizziness, eczema, and bleeding, among other ailments.
On some occasions, patients have suffered serious, acute poisoning problems when replacing old amalgam fillings with plastic fillings for instance, probably as a result of the mercury vapour and amalgam dust that is generated when drilling-out the fillings. It is important to note that the specific surface area from which mercury vapour can be generated is considerably enlarged when the amalgam is finely-divided in the process of treating a tooth in the aforesaid manner.
Many patients have been caused considerable suffering as a result of prolonged vapourization from amalgam fillings and/or when treating old fillings. It will be also noted that dentists and dental nurses will also be subjected to toxic vapours and toxic dust, in addition to the patients.
The object of the present invention is to endeavour to overcome the aforesaid drawbacks.